Critically examining the "End of the World"
Can Anyone tell me about the Mayan Calendar and their prediction of how the world will end on December 21 2012?
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Question:
So yea we’re doing this thing in Astronomy about the Mayan Calendar and i need ideas about what’s going to happen on
DECEMBER 21, 2012……….
any help would be awesome!!
| This entry was posted by Daniel on May 18, 2010 at 5:32 am, and is filed under 2012 Questions. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site. |
about 2 years ago
people say either the world is going to end
or that the human race is going to change.
about 2 years ago
You’re doing this in science class? My faith in the educational system hit rock bottom.
The world will not end. All there will be is the winter solstice, which happens every year. Shame on your teacher for incorporating this idiotic doomsday scenario into it!
Also, tell your teacher that the Mayans never predicted the end of the world and that they should branch out from the University of YouTube for their sources of information.
about 2 years ago
The Sumerians had some knowledge about the solar system and they said that a there was an additional planet which theorists have named Nibiru, and this planet reaches close to the Earth every 2500 years according to the interpreter who researched the Sumerian tablets. The close proximity of this planet could cause some sort of disruption, which could cause more natural disasters. This is all theory of course, but it is one of the theories.
about 2 years ago
The Mayan calendar does in fact end a cycle on December 21, 2012, but nowhere did the Mayans predict the end of the world.
Scientists don’t expect anything out of the ordinary to happen in the year 2012, or specifically on the date December 21, other than the solstice, which happens every year.
None of the “predicted” happenings for 2012 hold up under close scrutiny. “Planet X” and “Nibiru” simply don’t exist. The Mayan calendar ends a cycle, but there were no predictions of the end of the world. The Sun doesn’t line up with the galactic centre; it’s 6 degrees off. No asteroids or comets are actually predicted to hit Earth.
All of this stuff was put together by crackpots in order to promote their books and TV shows, and shamelessly promoted by the History Channel. Don’t take any of it seriously!
about 2 years ago
The world didn’t end on 01/01/01 or 02/02/02 or 03/03/03 or 04/04/04 or 05/05/05 or 06/06/06 or 07/07/07 or 08/08/08, so I don’t think it will happen on 12/12/12 or 12/21/12 either. The marking of time is a man-made phenomenon anyway, and so are the superstitions around dates. It’s completely random, so this calendar date means nothing, unless you have an important meeting on that day of course!
about 2 years ago
I read a book called “The Orion Prophecy” by Patrick Geryl. It’s a good book. I recommend it. He says that what is going to happen is that the two poles, the north pole and the south pole are going to switch places all of a sudden, like in a matter of seconds. This happens every 25,000 years or so and the Mayans figured out how to gauge when it will happen by certain things in the sky, certain planets and signs doing things. And this thing is going to happen on Dec. 21, 2012. When the poles shift, the force of it will toss the earth like a frisbee and there will be earthquakes and tidal waves immediately and huge floods everywhere. Most of the world will be killed. I am trying to figure out how to cope as this date approaches, particularly on the date itself. Because I really kind of believe it and I’m scared. My brother told me to get drunk. I think that’s a great idea. But you should read the book. It’s very intriguing.
about 2 years ago
Actually, the Mayans never said the world would end in 2012.
Their Long Count Calendar ends then – no big deal, our calendars end every year on December 31 and we never worry about it, we just start a new one each year.
The whole “end of the world in 2012″ mess began with a number of different “prophecies” from a dozen different, completely unrelated and sometimes contradictory sources, all smushed together by people that either don’t understand basic science, or don’t care about facts. And then it has been kept alive by people that either enjoy panicking the uneducated or want to get money out of the gullible.
So for facts (not “theories”), do some reading from reliable scientific or scholarly sites on the Long Count Calendar. Since the Mayans didn’t leave a written record, you need to read the interpretations from a number of researchers, not just one “translator”.
about 2 years ago
the mayans didn’t predict one blasted thing.
yes, a major cycle of their calendar ends in 2012. so what? where are the mayans now? have your kinds been chased by a bunch of lousy mayans lately? are mayans moving in to your neightbourhood and buying all the best houses?
no. they, like their calendar, are long gone. nothing will happen. the only ppl who say otherwise are perpetrating a cruel and cynical hoax, which you (and your class, sadly) appear to have fallen for.
you should be ashamed of yourself.
about 2 years ago
The Mayan calendar that everyone is talking about is a day-count calendar. It was not the common calendar used by the ordinary people (the kind you pin behind the door to the pantry). The common calendar began each year on the day of the Winter Solstice.
The day-count calendar was a calendar that… counted days. It was created by Mayan astronomers to calculate very long intervals for astronomical events. To find the interval (in days) just subtract the two dates. No need to worry about how many days per months or did we forget any leap years.
Modern astronomers use a day-count calendar (for the same reason). It is called the Julian Day calendar. Halloween night 2008 will be day number 2,454,771.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_day
The Mayans did not use a base-10 counting system like us, so their numbers look strange to us. But they were very simple for them.
Two things you need to know:
1) Mayan astronomers knew about the precession cycle (as did most ancient astronomers — Greek, Babylonians, Chinese…); precession causes the position of the Winter Solstice to go around the ecliptic in 25,800 years.
2) the round figure 13.0.0.0.0 (when used for dates) was an important round figure (a bit like the start of a year ending with 000 for us).
When the Mayan astronomers set up their calendar, they fixed it so that the round figure 13.0.0.0.0 would fall on their New Year’s Day (Winter Solstice), for the year when the position of the Winter Solstice would be in the thickest part of the Milky Way.
This was a relatively easy calculation (almost as easy as, let’s say, determining how many days are left until our calendar reaches January 1, 3000).
Mayan astronomers used this day-count calendar whenever they wrote about astronomical events. They describe events that will be seen from Earth well after the year we call 2012.
Obviously, they expected neither the world nor their calendar to end.
Any “prediction” about the end-of-the-world are recent inventions. Some are just meant for ‘fun’ (people participating in the Big 2012 Hoax Off), but some are meant to scare people into buying a book on how to survive the end-of-the-world.
It is a revised version of the book that was published by the same people for the end of the world in 2003…
—-
So, if you are a Mayan, the date we call 2012.12.21 will be the date 13.0.0.0.0 AND it will be New Year’s Day AND it will be the beginning of the year during which the position of the Winter Solstice will cross the middle of the Milky Way.
about 2 years ago
Christians also were warned 2 millennia ago in 2 Thessalonians 2:9-12
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJirnJSwqh4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jojzpXErCx0
Just in time for 2012!
After decades of conditioning, billions will fall for it.
Will you?
about 2 years ago
Many predictions have been made about 2012 and I cant believe everything they say, but i do believe “big brother” is preparing for something to big happen, backed by scientist..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOWWIDT910I
watch and observe…